Chapter 36: Swirling Palace

Compass Carburettor continued meditating, now absorbing all the Mental Energy incident on him. All the starlight was sucked into his gun, refined, and then made to circulate through the complex network in his body.

There wasn't any problem with the Mental Energy becoming excessive. After all, Compass Carburettor was creating new nerves constantly, covering more and more places of his Mental Energy Form's surface. This way, he planned to completely cover the surface until nothing remained free anymore.

After thinking for a moment, he focused on some of the finer bristles hailing from a bristle, concentrating on them as he stopped the starlight influx. It was easy to do so. And now, when he thought of Fealta, a starlight stream exited his body and fell on Fealta.

Though, as she didn't have a method to absorb it, once it passed through her body, it dissipated. Compass Carburettor focused, blocking more and more nodes—the ends of the finer bristles in contact with his Mental Energy Form's surface. And then, he experimented again, thinking of Fealta.

This time, the starlight stream he generated was a tad smaller, even though the contents was the same. 'Once I cover the surface with the nerves, I'll be able to prevent any of my thoughts from leaking out.'

This was his plan ever since he began to create the nerves. A System relied on the senses of its Host to function. But it primarily relied on the Mental Energy to determine everything, thereby generating relevant Quests for its Host to fulfil. After all, Mental Energy was generated by thoughts. And, every System had a method to detect and comprehend them at a level beyond what he was capable of.

And, since his opponent was a System, he had to first prevent it from detecting him. If it sensed his hostility and understood his plans, no matter what he did, he would never be able to outwit a System. And by blocking his thoughts, a System wouldn't be able to sense what he was thinking or planning to do.

And, he had an inkling that a typical Appraisal Skill relied on this Mental Energy to function. After all, one's physique or the subconsciousness maintaining it knew about itself the best. And, this Appraisal Skill probably relied on the Mental Energy emitted by the target to determine their abilities, character, etc.

There could be other modes of Appraisal Skills. But Compass Carburettor was assured that he was at least able to block one aspect. This gave him better assurance in scheming against Regriel's System.

As his Mental Energy Circuit continued to automatically pull in the starlight to refine, he had more than enough for his needs. At present, the influx wasn't high. But similarly, he wasn't able to pull in that much starlight either.

So, he planned to take it slow. After all, even a System took a lot of time to upgrade itself. As for him, he determined that at this rate, he would be able to reach Level 10 in all his Skills within a year. And, that was tremendously quick.

Once all of them reach Level 10, he would be a lot stronger than his current self. Smiling, Compass Carburettor continued to train, not thinking of anything else. When it was time to meditate, he created more nerves.

With more pathways opened up, the amount of starlight circulating through him continued to increase. And, the rate at which all the objects were being filled by starlight sped up. Since it was possible for him to destroy the nerves as he wished, he didn't worry about anything and just focused on filling up his Mental Energy Form with the nerves to circulate more Mental Energy.

In the future, once he obtained better ideas, he would rework them. And at present, until he covered his Mental Energy Form's surface with nodes, he didn't plan on thinking about killing Regriel. He didn't wish to alert his enemy.

And, the more he thought about his enemy, the more he fuelled its growth. And in return, Regriel would just finish some Quests and gain new Skills. The longer he delayed, the stronger Regriel would become.

A week later, Compass Carburettor had 20 Darlac. His growth speed was tremendous, shocking Ephemella every time she observed his actions. If there wasn't Regriel relying on his cheat, she would have labelled him a monster.

Though, most of it was due to the synergic effects of his numerous Skills. Thanks to them, he was able to achieve such a growth feat. And now, it was time for him to obtain combat experience. Simply accumulating Darlac wasn't enough, he should be ready to wield it in a threatening manner.

And to do that, he needed to obtain as much combat experience as possible.

Compass Carburettor donned a set of basic leather armour, wearing arm bracers of iron for better defence during emergencies. He carried an iron sword with him, holding an Armament in each hand.

They were the basic Armaments, having one state each. The one in his right condensed a sword while the one in his left condensed a shield. To gain experience, he had to train using the most basic of Armaments.

Without having to repair any damage, Compass Carburettor was able to maintain the sword in an activated state for ten minutes. If he used both the sword and the shield, his limit fell to five minutes. Still, it was plenty sufficient.

Fealta and Caithy accompanied him as they exited the palace. Only now did Compass Carburettor realise that they were both servants and guards. And, they were significantly strong to boot, judging by the respectful glances given to them by the soldiers.

Finally, after more than three weeks of stay in the palace, Compass Carburettor finally exited it, turning around to look at the massive structure, "It's huge."

"Indeed, it is." Caithy retorted, "It's the palace, after all."

'It spans at least two to three kilometres in length. As for the height, it is around 120-130 metres. That's massive.' Compass Carburettor thought, noticing the swirling architecture used in the place. It was as if the entire palace was a group of stairs combined to create the structure.

Aesthetically speaking, it wasn't pleasant to see. But, it seemed only he thought of that, due to his sense of aesthetics from Earth. As for those from the kingdom, they looked at the palace as if it was a world wonder.

'I guess I'll finally be able to appreciate this world's culture.' Compass Carburettor thought, accompanying the two servants as they exited the palace grounds, heading into the streets of the capital.